Curt Schilling: ESPN Fires Hall of Famer for Transgender Commentary

In this Aug. 3, 2012, file photo, former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling reacts after being introduced as a new member of the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame, at Fenway Park in Boston. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson, File)

Earlier this week, Schilling stepped into the so-called North Carolina "bathroom bill" controversy with a photo of a biological man dressed in women's clothing, WEEI-FM reported.

The photo was inscribed with the comment, "Let him in! To the restroom with your daughter or else you're a narrow minded, judgmental, unloving, racist bigot who needs to die!!!"

North Carolina's Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, passed last month, banned individuals from using public bathrooms that do not correspond to their biological sex. It also prevents local governments from enacting ordinances circumventing the legislation.

Schilling followed up the meme with a post on his blog on Tuesday defending the meme.

See here's the thing. I do NOT care what color you are, what race, what sex, who you sleep with, what you wear. I don't care and I never have. I have opinions, but they're just that, opinions."

Schilling told WEEI-FM that he received a call from ESPN about the photo on Tuesday and he was expecting further conversation on Wednesday. He told the radio station that he did not think his comments were political in nature.

"I was kind of blindsided by this one," Schilling said. "When I got the call I was like, 'I don't get this. How did this become that?' I assume I'll be talking with some people today.

"When did having an opinion become a cause for possibly losing your job or getting suspended? I stated a fact. Men's bathrooms were designed for people that stand up, and women's weren't," Schilling continued.

CNN reported that the baseball star was previously suspended by ESPN from his baseball analyst duties after reposting an Internet meme that compared radical Muslims with Nazis. It read: "It's said only 5-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How'd that go?"

The text was superimposed on a red-tinted photo of Adolf Hitler. Schilling added, "The math is staggering when you get to true #'s."
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